This is going to be a bit rough, but it’s stuff I need to get off my chest.

I’ve been involved in football for 20 years, and am familiar with the siege mentality the game has here in Victoria.

I’ve been involved on community boards, and am familiar with their reliance on evermore burnt out volunteers.

I’ve been involved as a member of the Greek Community, and am struggling with the inevitable shrinking of our cultural vibrancy in Melbourne.

I’ve been involved in sport media for over a decade (believe it or not) and understand the threat of politics, money and competition to clubs at all levels.

All this experience makes it hard to be positive about a club like South, especially when things aren’t going well. But, I also understand that the closer you look at anything the more you see its faults and weaknesses, especially in comparison to others. The grass is always greener on the other side as they say.

However my time here has been short. I haven’t weathered storms on the vanguard, I lack that experience and that foresight. As a result I tend to give the benefit of the doubt to those on the front line, those with more experience and those with real skin in the game. Another way of saying this is that I hold my tonge at times.

But it’s hard to stay positive when it’s so easy to pick up an entity like South and compare it to a Frankenstein’s monster club that doesn’t exist…. if only we owned our own stadium like the Knights, and had crowds like Preston, and had success like Oakleigh, and had money like Avondale, and had political capital like Melbourne City, and had an A-League licence like Western United.

It’s easy to fall into this way of thinking when you consider the touch points we have with the club. The club’s past casts a shadow and its future appears as an abyss. Games days as of late have been sad on the pitch and quiet off it (literally no conversation, messages, pin-boards, pennants, updates or news in the social club). That leaves online… well online is a cesspit full of hate.

I’ve read thousands of comments throughout the years from those people who hate us, ranging from protectionist views to racist views. I’ve read thousand of comments from our own fans slinging negativity about everything ranging from the Board to the Youth program to the State Trust. Even when not talking about our club some of our fans are violently negative about football in this country, and this is the world we want to live in?

But I don’t want to think like this, and I know that much of this thinking isn’t real, or even desirable. The super club I compare us too doesn’t exist, and the positive aspects that many clubs enjoy come with unique costs. I don’t want the cost of maintenance that Knights have, the relegation story that has fueled Preston crowds, the lack of fans of Avondale, the sports washing of Melbourne City nor the property focus of Western United.

The online negativity as well isn’t worth engaging with. I know that it’s best to turn it off, outside of gameday, where else am I meant to get my football fix? For a long time it was South of the Border (and it continues to be) but that is just one space. This blog has been my way of trying to improve the online content balance, to offer something a little more positive and constructive. The more I write about the club though the more I care about the club. And the more I care about the club the more the negativity impacts me. South fans need healthier sources of communication, or else the most passionate fans will continue to be converted into the most negative. What can be a source of strength, will continue to become a weight on our club culture.

Direction

The club needs to address this, not just in a reactionary way to minimise negativity (bordering toxicity) but in a proactive way to create a pipeline of volunteers that will actively make sure South remains a great club in the future.

In many ways the board has already broken its back to do this through its A-League bids and by spearheading the campaign for the Australian Championship. In a couple of years, should we find ourselves in a proper national competition, maybe much of this negativity will disappear, maybe it might even just take a few wins in the next few weeks! However, this lull within a lull has given me a window into how bad things could be, and it’s not something I like.

Today’s announcement of a revamped Albert Park Grand Prix Pit building was a tipping point for me. I found myself walking the city at lunch time wondering it the juniors have to become even more nomadic over the next five years of redevelopment, whether the State Trust actually want to kick us out of Lakeside, whether the jersey night had a low attendance, whether we will get relegated, whether the Australian Championship will be canned now that JJ has left the FA… far out I’m glad I’m not a board member, I don’t want to be responsible for this stuff, but I am a member and I do worry about it.

So what can the club do about these thousands of imagined issues? Well, it needs to start addressing them. Communication from the club to its members is lacking, and members need more constructive direction. It’s also one of the reasons I started this blog – to create another form of communication after realising how little some fans actually know about what’s going on.

Communication however needs to be consistent and sustained. There are simple things the board can do to appease members and create a sustained positive improvement in the club’s culture. AGMs and member forums are good, but I think what is lacking is regular (at least quarterly) emails to members from senior figures at the club.

Other clubs do this all the time, and with much fanfare. Central Coast Mariners’ Chairman letters are a great example of this and instilled much goodwill in the community by outlining financial difficulties, key staff changes, longer term plans and team updates in a frank and open way. It’s just one step, but I think it’s the best first step for the Board to implement.

Once a quarter, the board should write a letter to members addressing what is happening at the club. In doing so it could:

• Show fans that the club is bigger than just the men’s team (the women’s team is flying atm)
• Explain to fans that the club’s grounds are secure with the State Trust and Albert Park, and if not, explain why – either way squash the rumours
• Instill some pride across the club, showing the juniors and and women’s programs that they are part of members commuications
• Show fans that the board isn’t tone deaf, and at least feeling the pain of recent results
• Show fans that something is happening behind the scenes instead of allowing rumours to fester about coaching selection processes.

Over time these letters will reduce the number of rumours, minimise negativity, encourage more contributions from volunteers and members and help improve club culture.

Eventually the club will need to get members involved more actively. Imagine what we could achieve if we converted our chronically online posting into something useful! Member event, banner paining workshops, fundraisers for charity, volunteering programs, podcasts…

The occassional facebook post, half-true Neos Kosmos articles and wild west of online forums need to be bettered, or else more discontent and negativity will be allowed to fester, and more fans who would otherwise be club contributors, will become burnt out pessimists.